Chapter 4

Schemes and Secrets

Amber's POV

I pressed myself against the mahogany door of Alpha Storm's office, my enhanced hearing picking up every word of the heated conversation inside. I'd come to find Jace after the whole incident with Grace—honestly, I was expecting praise for finally putting that pathetic girl in her place. Instead, I'd found him getting the lecture of his life from his father.

"—completely unacceptable behavior!" Alpha Storm's voice boomed through the thick wood. "That girl could have died, Jace. She has a severe concussion and needed twelve stitches. And you stood there laughing?"

"She's fine," Jace's voice was defensive, but I could hear something underneath it. Something that made my stomach twist with unease. "It's not like I pushed her myself."

"No, but you might as well have! Amber is your... companion. Your actions reflect on this pack, on our family. What message does it send when the future Alpha shows no compassion for a grieving pack member?"

There was a long pause, and I leaned closer to the door.

"She's not just any pack member, is she?" Alpha Storm's voice had dropped to a deadly quiet. "I've been watching you, son. The way you seek her out to torment her. The way you can't seem to leave her alone. There's only one reason a young wolf behaves that way toward a female."

My blood ran cold. No. He couldn't mean...

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jace said, but his voice lacked conviction.

"Don't lie to me!" The Alpha's fist slammed against his desk, making me jump. "Grace Matthew is your mate, isn't she?"

The silence that followed was deafening. In that moment of quiet, my entire world shifted on its axis. Grace Matthew—quiet, pathetic, nobody Grace—was Jace's mate. The Moon Goddess had chosen that worthless girl over me.

"Answer me, Jace."

"Yes." The word was barely a whisper, but it hit me like a physical blow. "Yes, she's my mate. But I didn't ask for this. I didn't want—"

"Want?" Alpha Storm's voice was incredulous. "The Moon Goddess doesn't care what you want! She's given you a gift, and you've been treating it like a curse. That girl is going to be the Luna of this pack someday, and you've been—"

"She'll never be Luna," Jace interrupted, his voice hard. "I won't accept her. I can't. Look at her—she's weak, defenseless, nothing like what this pack needs."

"Then make her stronger! Help her become who she's meant to be! That's what a true mate does—they lift each other up, not tear each other down."

I'd heard enough. I slipped away from the door on silent feet, my mind racing with this new information. Jace Storm—future Alpha, the most eligible bachelor in the pack—was mated to Grace fucking Matthew.

The injustice of it burned in my chest like acid. I'd been sleeping with him for months, had assumed I was being groomed to be his Luna. We were perfect together—both strong, both from good bloodlines, both everything this pack could want in leaders. But instead, the Moon Goddess had chosen some orphaned nobody.

Well, I wasn't going to stand for it.

By the time I reached my car, a plan was already forming in my mind. Jace had said it himself—he wouldn't accept Grace as his mate. All I had to do was make sure she was gone before her eighteenth birthday. Before she could scent the bond and make things complicated.

And I knew exactly how to do it.

Three Days Later

Amber's POV

I found Marcus in the pack training facility, working out his frustrations on a punching bag. Sweat glistened on his bare chest as he threw punch after devastating punch, but I could see the tension in his shoulders.

"Rough day?" I purred, sliding up beside him.

He paused mid-punch, glancing at me with those dark eyes that reminded me so much of Jace's. "What do you want, Amber?"

"Can't a girl just want to chat with a friend?" I batted my eyelashes innocently. "Besides, I heard about what happened at school. That must have been... difficult to watch."

Marcus's jaw tightened. "Grace got hurt. It wasn't exactly entertaining."

Interesting. Even Marcus, who usually followed Jace's lead in everything, seemed uncomfortable with how things had played out. That could work in my favor.

"Of course not," I said, laying a sympathetic hand on his arm. "Poor thing. Although, I have to say, I'm a little concerned about her... academic performance lately."

"What do you mean?"

I pulled out my phone, scrolling to a photo I'd taken of Grace's latest chemistry test. A photo I'd edited very carefully.

"I was helping Mr. Peterson organize papers yesterday, and I couldn't help but notice this." I showed him the screen, where Grace's grade showed a perfect score—too perfect. "Doesn't that seem suspicious to you? I mean, Grace has never been particularly brilliant, and suddenly she's getting perfect marks?"

Marcus frowned, studying the image. "You think she's cheating?"

"I don't want to think that," I said, injecting just the right amount of reluctance into my voice. "But look at this." I swiped to another doctored image—this one showing Grace's previous tests, all with failing grades. "The improvement is just so... dramatic. And I heard she's been staying after school a lot lately."

That part was true. Grace had been getting extra help from Mr. Peterson, trying to keep her grades up while dealing with her grief. But Marcus didn't need to know that.

"If she is cheating..." Marcus said slowly.

"Academic dishonesty is grounds for expulsion," I finished. "And expelled students can't remain in pack territory. They're usually... relocated."

The euphemism hung between us. We both knew that "relocation" often meant banishment, especially for pack members with no family to vouch for them.

"But we'd need proof," Marcus said, though I could see the wheels turning in his head.

"Leave that to me," I said with a smile. "Grace's eighteenth birthday is in three months. If we're going to help her... see reason... about her future here, we need to act soon."

Marcus nodded slowly. "What do you need me to do?"

Two Weeks Later

Amber's POV

Everything was falling into place perfectly. I'd been carefully planting evidence of Grace's supposed cheating—a few answers written in her handwriting on a test key hidden in her locker, some text messages between fake contacts discussing "the plan," even a few photographed study sessions that I'd doctored to look like she was copying someone else's work.

The beauty of it was that Grace was so isolated, so friendless, that no one would defend her when the accusations came. She had no allies, no one who would vouch for her character. Even the teachers who might have supported her would have to bow to the evidence.

I'd already approached Mr. Peterson with my "concerns," playing the part of the worried classmate who'd noticed some inconsistencies in Grace's work. He'd been reluctant to believe it at first—Grace was one of his most dedicated students—but the evidence was damning.

"I just don't understand it," I'd told him, tears in my eyes. "Grace has been through so much with her parents' death. Maybe the pressure just got to her? I almost feel bad bringing this to your attention, but academic integrity is so important..."

Now I just had to wait for the right moment to spring the trap. Grace's birthday was getting closer, and I needed her gone before she turned eighteen and complicated things for Jace.

My phone buzzed with a text from Marcus: *Peterson's planning to confront Grace tomorrow about the cheating allegations. You sure about this?*

I smiled as I typed back: *Trust me. This is for the good of the pack. Jace will thank us later.*

And he would. Once Grace was gone, once that pathetic excuse for a mate bond was broken by distance and rejection, Jace would see clearly again. He'd realize that I was the one who'd always been there for him, the one who truly deserved to stand by his side.

The Moon Goddess might have made a mistake, but I was going to fix it.

After all, some people were just born to be losers. And Grace Matthew was about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Grace's POV

I sat in my small cottage, struggling to focus on my chemistry homework despite the dull ache in my head that hadn't fully gone away since my fall. The doctor had said the headaches might linger for a few weeks, but they were getting better.

What wasn't getting better was the feeling that something was wrong. I couldn't shake the sense that people were watching me, whispering about me more than usual. Even Mr. Peterson, who'd always been kind to me, had seemed tense during our last tutoring session.

I tried to push the paranoia away. I was just being sensitive because of everything that had happened. Losing my parents, the accident at school—it was natural that I'd feel like the world was against me.

But as I worked through the chemical equations, I couldn't escape the feeling that storm clouds were gathering on the horizon.

And I had no idea that my worst nightmare was about to begin.